I asked about magnesium because horse has been spooky. Don’t recall asking about ulcers or how I manage my horses. So if you want to pursue that do so through PM.
This must be something that is in other parts of the country. I live in pretty urban/suburban area, and I checked with both feed stores that are here. Neither of them carry it. It’s interesting. There might be some feed stores that cater more to farmers that have it, but they don’t have it here! The best option I found was on Amazon.
tazy - ulcers make my horse incredibly spooky, so it is something worth considering if there are other signs of GI trouble. Mg only helps spooky horses if the reason for the spooking has to do with the symptoms of being deficient in Mg. Because you can’t really blood test for Mg deficiency, the only way to find that part out is to try supplementing Mg and see how it goes. However, Mg can cause some digestive upset (same as it does in people…think Milk of Magnesia), so it might be worthwhile to investigate possible ulcers or other GI issues first.
Back on topic – I’m really getting to be a huge believer in MagRestore. Yes, my horse still has some problems (physical and mental). No, he’s not exactly a broke packer all of a sudden. But, I’ve had several days in a row now of a much more focused, less distracted, and forward, with swinging back horse. It’s been a good year now since I had this many good days in a row, and in that time he spent more time than not on 10mg Magnesium Oxide per day, plus whatever Mg is in the rest of the diet. And a couple other people have commented on how happy and relaxed he looks going around.
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1 of my 3 shows marked improvement in silliness when on magnesium and he also does better with some additional amino acids. It turns out to be more economical for me to feed TC 30% 10g of magnesium, AAs and biotin plus a variety of other vitamins per pound.
As for training it out of him, good luck. Lack of magnesium means he spins around in his stall like his tail is on fire and with it he is a solid citizen.
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Did you ask them if they could order it? The guy at my feed store said one other person had previously asked about it, and that’s when he found out he could order it. But I don’t know from who–he said it was a commodity, FWIW.
shrug you’re the one who said “he’s having tummy issues”. I didn’t bring that up 
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Just FYI, I texted my vet about checking for Lyme. She says it’s very rare in CA and doesn’t recommend a test. She likes Smart Calm Ultra and Quiessence.
She is a very careful vet (also a long time friend) who was the one who figured out my pregnant mare was vitamin A deficient (an almost unheard of test in horses) and probably saved the foal. So, I’m pretty confident.
I did not ask if they could order it at the feed store. If they don’t have it, I can just order it I assume. And that’s another question, for JB?, is it just better to get the formulated products, buy the feed store bulk, or just get the straight ingredients from Amazon.
Which option to go with for Mg is fairly complicated if you are looking for the combination of most cost efficient and most bioavailable LOL I started to try to put together a sheet a while ago and just gave up.
So essentially, you pick something that’s reasonable priced and available to start, and go from there.
Magnesium is magnesium. MagOx in the 40 (50?) lb bags is the cheapest way to go. It’s a lower bioavailability, but so cheap relative to others that a dose isn’t expensive at all. the downside is that dose is higher, and as a straight mag form, it’s pretty off-putting to a lot of horses.
Quiessence and Remission and (the one I use) Magnesium 5000 are a lot more tolerable and not toooo awfully expensive.
So it really boils down to preference as to where you start. There’s nothing wrong with buying a straight Mg ingredient from anywhere, just know it will be pretty strong-smelling and tasting without yummy filler/binding ingredients.
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Thanks, JB. As always, I learn a lot from you.
Just wanted to add this site where you can get bulk pure powder. This seems the best deal, and you can feed small amounts.
http://www.bulksupplements.com/catal…gnesium+malate
Here’s a cheaper version of the 20% Mg Malate
http://www.myworldhut.com/products/Magnesium-Malate-(20%-Mag.)-Powder-Bulk.html
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Are supplements such as MagRestore as effective as a paste (i.e. Perfect Prep) for a one-time use situation, like a show? Perfect Prep (and others) are so expensive and my horse HATES them.
I honestly think most if not all the results from using PP are placebo for the human. None of the ingredients have sedating effects. Even if a horse is Mg-deficient and acting out as a result, a one-time dose isn’t going to resolve that.
Same with the thiamine (B1) and tryptophan. A B1-deficiency enough to cause anxiety isn’t going to be resolved with 1 dose, and there’s not enough tryptophan it to have an real “sedating” post-turkey dinner effect.
The inositol in it does have some research behind it for reducing anxiety - in people - but also studies show no significant improvements with regards to anxiety or depression.
Mine won’t eat the straight Mg oxide mixed into her food. There are very few things she will not eat, but that’s one of them.
I have had good luck with SmartCalm, Quiessence, and Mag 5000, and she eats them readily. Mag 5000 is the least expensive so that’s what I’m using now.
Seroquine is available as a paste, but no idea how well it would work with a one-time dose. I find the powder makes a pretty big difference in my reactive horses in 2-3 days, though. Unlike IPEsq, I’ve never had one refuse to eat it–I think it smells kind of sweet. It’s also available in a pellet.
It might be the sweetness of it that mine doesn’t like. He’s weird. It took him a while to warm up to PP Training Day (also smells sweet), but he did eventually eat that.
Most of the daily Mg supplements recommend doing a bit of a loading dose around stressful events, so I don’t think a one-time dose will do much, but maybe if you do a few days at least in a row.
I’ve used PP paste as well…fed at 1/3 to 1/2 a tube once or twice a day over the course of a few days when I first took the horse to see a show (his first ever). He was not having the extreme back soreness issues at that time, though he’s had chronic neuromuscular issues. And he was still a basketcase. He did focus a little bit better, though. That’s part of what put me down the path of trying to find a daily supplement that would work (vs if he had had zero response). The other part was vet recommendation to supplement Mg.
One of my horses spent two years living out 24/7 in Alberta. Just got a ration balancer when I rode (5x per week). He was a little grumpy getting tacked up, checked saddle fit, treated for ulcers, did a round of Quiessence. No change in attitude, but had to stop the mg because he was getting soft stools.
Fast forward to this year, we moved back to Ontario, horse is stalled at night now. He was super well behaved when we first got here and were riding inside, by the time spring rolled around and the outdoor was good I was on a ticking time bomb. Lots of bucking after jumps, lost all focus if a car came down the driveway, spooky even when it’s 30C, etc. Last week I bought a small tub of Solace that was on sale. After two doses he’s a totally different horse. I have my push ride hunter back 
I’m still a little skeptical but if I don’t have to lunge the bucks out before we show this weekend then I’ll know it’s the Solace. It’s hasn’t given him the runs which makes me think that he may have been a little deficient in mg since moving. Or the combination of mg and B vitamins works for him.
Chill, PP, Serenity, etc never did anything for this horse.
Certain forms of Mg are more likely to cause soft stool than others. For example, magnesium oxide is more likely to cause that than the malate form.
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Fair enough, both mg supplements I’ve tried were magnesium oxide. After talking to one of my beef producer friends it’s apparently common knowledge that forage in the west tends to have adequate mg, but Ontario is deficient more often then not.
I use “Relax Me” by Horse First…there is no calming agent in the product, just a good balance of Magnesium and other vitamins to balance the higher dose of Mg. It works wonders on my tense/tight/spooky guys (but does not dull them). I sent my super hot filly to be started by a trainer who does racehorses (he rides anything). She was having trouble adjusting, so I added the Relax Me…he laughed and told me those supplements never work. He was so amazed at how well it worked for her that he put some of his racehorses who would get worked up going to the start gate on it. I also use it on my gelding who had an SI injury to his back and was really tight. Recently I lowered his dose, not thinking it was doing anything after being on it for a few years…nope. He was tight and unhappy in his back. put him back to his normal dose…happy boy. I think SmartPak is now carrying it…I order it from the Horse First Direct website…the company owner is eventing trainer and breeder in Ireland, so the supplements are designed for competing horses.
Ouch. I just looked up Relax Me. $210 for 5 kg on Dover!!! That is really expensive.
Why doesn’t Relax Me have an analysis for the magnesium?
